Wikipedia Fellows Pilot

Wikipedia Fellows Pilot

Wikipedia Fellows is a pilot program that trains scholars, scientists, and other professionals to substantially improve Wikipedia articles.

The public learns through Wikipedia

In a time when terms like “alternative facts” and “fake news” have become shorthand for a wide range of political, educational, and epistemological challenges to public knowledge, it’s crucial that we ensure the quality of our most popular source of information.

We often hear from academics that there are many important topics that remain underdeveloped, uneven, poorly explained, or simply neglected on Wikipedia. We have years of experience supporting students in navigating Wikipedia norms and processes in classroom assignments that address these gaps. And now, subject-matter experts have asked for a similar infrastructure for their own work.

2018 Wikipedia Fellows pilot

In 2018, we worked with our partner associations to invite their members to apply to our pilot courses. Over the course of the year, participants learned how to contribute to Wikipedia and make a substantial improvement to at least two articles each on a range of subjects. Our staff of Wikipedia experts provided training and guidance throughout the process, through both structured group settings and personalized one-on-one communication. To read about individual participant experiences, check out this section of our blog.

Wiki Education has a track record of supporting new editors as they contribute to Wikipedia, and we have built the necessary infrastructure to train them.

In addition to facilitating the learning process and providing support as Wikipedia Fellows edit, Wiki Education tracks metrics about Fellows’ impact and publicizes results through our website, social media, and Wikipedia.

Application opportunities

We are currently accepting applications for a new course in collaboration with the National Archives that follows our Wikipedia Fellows model. Find out more here.